A Blade's Reflection
by Sion-Ta
Summary: In the small city of Cardiff, A life of pain and isolation was all Hybrid creatures could look forward to. And for six-year old Hedgecat Blade, it remains no different. Note: No official characters
1. Chapter 1

**A Blade's Refection**

Written by Sion Kavanagh.

**Chapter 1**

3 May 1998 - 03:10PM

As the sun slowly sank to the ground below, it's glowing and round form now mostly-concealed by the snow-tipped mountain tops, which towered over the small city of Cardiff as it entered into the afternoon. And as usual, afternoon's start brings about Bryn Hafod Primary School's end; within a second of the bell, the doors are immediately flung open, and school children rush out to return to their homes as quickly as possible. The dark clouds that covered most of the above skies, and the small pools formed on the ground below, suggested that it had been raining recently, though with Britain's weather patterns it is to be expected; the sounds of the now 'free' students' feet splashing within the murky puddles repeat over and over, until after a while the area becomes barren.

…Well, bar one student. A young boy of age, no-more then six. His fur was a dark red in colour, with bangs that hung loosely over his blue eyes. He was dressed in his school uniform – a green jumper, white polo shirt, black trousers and shoes. In his hand was an umbrella, which hung over his head, most likely in case the weather was to change once again. His features were mostly that of a hedgehog, except that his ears were larger then normal, and curved out, and instead of a small-pointed tail, instead was a long cat-like tail, which wrapped itself tightly around the lad's waist. This boy was a hybrid – a being of two different species.

His back pressed close against a dripping lamppost; his eyes wandering around the area, as if he was expecting something. However, the worried expression imprinted on his face, showed that it was not something he was looking forward to.

"Well, what do you know … 'It' actually waited for us."

The young hybrid cringed. He slowly twisted his body around to the direction of the voice. Standing there was a group of three in black coats; underneath they were dressed in the same uniform as him, save for a couple of tears here and there, showing they were from the same school.

"Gotta' hand it to you, Freakazoid. You're never tardy for our … lil' 'get-togethers'." Spoke up what appeared to be the leader of the small gang. He was a black bat, with hair that appeared to defy gravity, as it spiked up in a Northeast direction; and a gold chain that hung loosely over his long neck.

The two falcons behind him snickered, while rubbing their fists into their other hands, knowing full well what the bat meant by 'get-togethers'. And they weren't the only ones, as the hedgecat backed away from the trio slowly, his body now visibly shaking, much to the others' delight.

"D… Do we have to… to do this …Aro?" The hybrid asked nervously, despite already knowing what the answer would be.

"Blade, Blade, Blade …" The bat whose name is now revealed to be Aro, placed his hand on the frightened child's shoulder; "You know we Year 6s…we've got our SATs coming up… So, it's a very stressful time for me and the boys, you see?"

Blade let out a painful yelp, as Aro's grip on his shoulder grew tighter; "So we've gotta' find a way to relieve us of this stress." With a hard push, Blade was rammed against the lamppost. Blade whimpered in pain, and the umbrella he was holding, slipped out of his hand. Aro's two falcon accomplices then moved over to Blade, and proceeded to slam their fists hard into the hybrid's gut, while Aro's grip prevented him from escaping.

Blade bit his bottom lip down hard, to prevent any screaming. More and more tears began to swell up within his eyes, with each passing punch. Seeing them run down his red-furred cheeks, made a grin appear on Aro's face. He finally released his grip, allowing the beaten hybrid to fall to the wet floors below.

Aro looked down at the six-year old, who lay sprawled out on his stomach, inside a murky puddle; "Hedgehog… Cat… And now a drowned rat. Any other species we should know about?" He mocked. His cohorts burst out with laughter at their boss' comment, as the hybrid's tears continued to fall, mixing with the muddy water he lay in. The black-furred bat wrapped his fingers around Blade's quill-styled hair, and forcibly yanked his head up. Blade hung motionlessly, as Aro began to speak;

"Crying like a baby huh?" No response. "… It's your own fault for being born like this, you freak. I mean, maybe if you didn't have that tail…" Aro gave a nod to one of the falcons. A smirk appeared on his face, as he slammed his foot down on the hybrid's tail. Blade gave the bully the response he wanted, as he let out a loud scream, feeling his tail being crushed by the older kid's foot;

"Then maybe people would actually like you."

With that Aro loosened his grip on the hedgecat's hair, allowing Blade's face to slam into the pavement below. He laid motionless, blood slowing dripping from out of his nose. Satisfied with the sight of blood, the gang finally called it a day. Aro picked up the umbrella Blade dropped previously, "Hope you don't mind if I borrow this. Wouldn't wanna' get wet if it starts raining again." The black bat let out one more laugh, before he and the two falcons at last, began to walk away from the battered child.

As if Aro's words were a trigger, small droplets fell from the dark clouds before, splashing on the back of Blade's head. Soon more and more droplets continued to fall, until it was eventually pouring down, soaking the hybrid even more then he already was.

Wet, clothes and fur now covered in mud, eyes as red as his fur, tail twitching on the wet floor, and blood slowly running down his face.

But Blade didn't mind… He was used to Aro's roughhousing by now.

No… he was more fixated on what the bully said;

"_**Maybe if you didn't have that tail… … Then maybe people would actually like you…"  
**_

"Actually like me… …" He whispered to himself, the rain continuing to fall from out of the sky…

_To be continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

**A Blade's Refection**

Written by Sion Kavanagh.

**Chapter 2**

3 May 1998 - 03:31PM

Tap. Tap. Tap.

This sound. The sounds of rain. The sounds of their small liquidised forms, continuing to collide with the bricked layers of the city households, and then slowly trailing down their structure like blood on a beaten man's face. Within one of these homes – or more specifically, the basement of one of these homes; a cold, desolated environment, a place one despite the lacking showers, could easily compare to the depressing weather that is rain, from outside the property.

Tap. Tap. Tap – is once again heard. A different one - that came from the other end of the room. A pencil. Held loosely within the hand of a middle-aged duck. Lightly tapping the edge of a wooden desk. Tuned with the rain's rhythm.

The expression on the man's face showed that he was in deep thought - a raised brow, teeth clenched tight, and a hand pressed firmly against his chin. His eyes focused intensely on the computer screen, which was placed on the desk before him. Sweat slowly ran down his messy, blue/purple fur, as he pressed the tip of his pencil harder against the wooden surface.

"Daaaaaad! I'm hooooome!" at the sound of that voice, the duck's pencil snapped. The tip fell to the floor below with a near-silent thud. The man also fell, into silence.

After a few minutes, the voice called out once again, "OI DAD! ARE YOU THERE?!"

The man let out a disappointed sigh, and allowed what remained of his writing utensil to fall onto the desk below. With a deep breath, he slowly began to lift himself from out of his chair. "For my research… " he whispered to himself.

"No Hybrids… … No choice… "

He slowly dragged his weary feet across the cold floors and further into the dark corners of the room. His back hunched, his eyes shut tight, repeating those same two lines over, and over.

"_**For my research… No Hybrids… No choice… "**_

-- --

_\May 3rd, 1998_

_\It has been several months since my last entry. I have been searching every inch of every section of this town, without any luck at finding a new Hybrid test subject. The only species that the laws of abduction and (possible) murder don't apply to and I can't find an eighth one of them. _

_My search is becoming hopeless, with each passing day I am bringing more and more shame to my family's legacy… They're hopes and ambitions tarnished by my incompetence… I'm afraid if this continues, I'll have no choice but to use a non-hybrid – the only one I could experiment on, with a reasonable chance of not getting caught…_

… _My son.\ _

-- --

"Ahh… Sometimes I wonder if that man knows that there are other rooms in this house, other than the basement." moaned Aro, as he flung his backpack across the room.

**SMASH!**

The bag rammed into a shelf ornament, causing it to shatter on impact, its glass segments separating from one another, as the backpack fell to the ground. Aro let out an unfazed yawn, and slowly made his way out of the room, and into the kitchen.

The duck flicked on the kitchen lights, causing the room to light up; "And what will I have to pick out of the fridge today, just because my Dad's too busy to actually cook something for his only son." Aro grumbled, as he opened the refrigerator door, and began to rummage through. "Lets see… green… green as well… green, green, greeeeen -" Aro said to himself, noting the unpleasant 'gone-off' colouring;

"- Annnnd… pizza with mild green is today's winner." he half-heartedly announced, pulling the slightly torn-up box from out of the machine, and placing it down on the kitchen counter next to the fridge.

Opening the tattered box, and pulling out one of the moulded slices, Aro said sarcastically to himself, "Food poisoning, here I come." he slowly inches the slice towards his mouth-

"Hope you've been saving up your pocket money, 'cause I sure am not paying for your operation." stated a nearby voice.

Aro turned to the voice's direction, "… Finally found the door eh? Brilliant scientist, Densan Gaidoku."

"Hmph… Densan huh? What happened to Dad?" asked Densan, folding his arms into a pouted manner.

"How funny, I was thinking that very same question… " responded Aro, holding back a lot of anger in his voice, as he glared at his 'father'. The two ducks fell silent, and neither moved a muscle.

The younger man's fists tightened, as his eyes made a quick scan of his father's features, the very same features that Aro had tried to avoid over the years. The older man's fur was a dark blue/purple colour, which showed hints of grey due to age and stress from work; the fur was also severely messy with several split ends sticking out, again likely due to stress. Unlike Aro's tall and thin physique, Densan had a broad build, accompanied by a hunched-over back, and stood merely a foot taller then his pre-teen son. His hair also curled over his head, hanging just in front of the man's face, this was also Aro's natural hairstyle, before he begun gelling it to point outwards, to different himself from the man in front of him.

Aro let out a sigh, "Have you at least made some progress on what you're working on? You've been in that basement for months." Densan seemed to twitch slightly at the question. Aro raised an eyebrow, "Dad?"

"I might've stumbled onto something… " He muttered, his hands now visibly shaking, and his head held down as if he didn't want his son to look at him.

Aro blinked in confusion at his father's actions, "… Figures… months of work and you don't seem very confident in this 'something' of yours." the younger duck's eyes wandered over to his father's hands, which were now clenched into fists. He grinned in satisfaction, that his comments were getting to the older male. He turned his back to his father, and continued to mock him, "Maybe you're not as smart as people claim you are… You don't appear to be getting anywhere with this project of yours… At this stage a smarter man would've realised that he was just wasting his ti-"

"DON'T ACT ALL HIGH AND MIGHTY BOY!" snapped Densan, now finally looking at his son, but with anger and resentment in his eyes, "Never mind me, how about you?! Explain what took you so long to get home!"

Aro steps back a little, taken back by his father's outburst; "W… wow… something you actually noticed about m-"

Densan interrupts again; "ANSWER ME!" The older man was now absolutely furious. His son, his own flesh blood was berating his hard work, his father's and grandfather's hard work, their family's legacy! He was at the stage, where with one more push; he could smash the boy's head against the metallic fridge; and he was hoping his son's answer would be the push he needed.

Aro steps closer, as if to test his father's threatening tone; "I WAS MEETING UP WITH A FRIEND!"

Densan's eyes lowered; "Friend… You mean one of those falcons? Why would you need to meet up with them, those two follow you around like a pack of hungry dogs to a meat market!"

"Not them! Some… Hedgehog… Cat thing…"

The older duck's eyes widened; "A… a hybrid?" All anger towards his son, every thought of desecrating his body instead replaced with that one word 'Hybrid'.

Aro looked at his father, with a confused expression on his face; "Yeeeeahh… wh- "

His father once again cut him off, only this time in a more aggressive manner. Aro felt the man's long fingers dig themselves into his throat, sharp fingernails piercing his tender skin. He tried to pull himself away from his father's grip, only to feel his nail inch further into his skin, forcing him to let out a painful scream.

"Where is he…?" asked Densan in an emotionless tone.

"W-whoAHH!" The duck's fingers sank further into his son's throat, not satisfied with the younger man's response. Blood was now pouring out of Aro's pierced flesh. He weakly looked at his father, teary-eyed and with a pleading look on the boy's face.

"The Hybrid" Densan stated, his expression showing no remorse for his son's agony; "You will take me to this Hybrid friend of yours."

_To be continued…_


End file.
